Evil Tree

This Distraction and Diversion has been rated as Low Risk. See the minigames page for a definition of high and low risk.

Introduction

Surely the Evil Tree is one of the most horrifying of all RuneScape's flora. These trees, with their vicious and haunting faces, sprout occasionally in RuneScape's many forests, tainting the area with their very presence. Leprechauns are RuneScape's foremost agriculturists and arborists, and therefore, they are heavily interested in preventing the sprout of these trees when they grow. At first, the Evil Tree is like any other tree, and leprechauns will encourage any passerby to help them bring it to maturity. However, once the tree reaches its' final growth cycle, it will sprout malicious roots, and begin to endanger the area. This is where you come in. You can only interact with two Evil Trees per day, and they appear only periodically, but can serve as a good distraction from other mundane tasks!

Requirements

Evil Trees, like other trees, come in varying types and levels of difficulty. The woodcutting and firemaking levels correspond to the levels required for ordinary trees and logs. The farming requirements are lower, to allow nurturing of the saplings. The lowest, normal tree does not require any levels over 1, but to broaden your access to more trees and better rewards, higher farming, woodcutting, and/or firemaking levels are advantageous. The leprechaun on site can supply you with a bronze hatchet and a tinderbox, but bringing your highest level hatchet is best. As well, completing the Tree Gnome Village Quest is a HUGE help in finding and teleporting to the trees.

Suggested:

Your best hatchet, tinderbox (can be gotten at site) and a machete (optional),access to Spirit Trees (VITAL!)

Dealing With The Tree

While a Tree is still in its' early stages, it has not yet revealed its' noxious nature, and thus a leprechaun will still be caring for it. They will ask nearby passers-by to help tend it. You can do this without any tools, so long as you have the necessary farming level (shown above). This will net you some farming experience, of course.

Once the tree has reached the final growth stage, roots will surround it, preventing you from reaching it. Players can then chop the roots with a hatchet or a machete to get access to the tree. Each piece of root chopped will yield kindling, which can be used to light the tree on fire, dealing damage and giving experience. You can only light eight fires on any one tree, at each compass point and also in between them. Once you have access to the tree, chopping the bark will deal damage and give experience as well. Beware, as roots will spontaneously grow back, knocking back or dazing nearby players.

Note that roots will go down faster when all four are active, and respawn more slowly when three are active.

You can examine the tree to check how much health it has left, and what percentage of the total possible reward will be yours for your part in dealing with the tree.

Type

Farming Experience
(nurturing sapling)

Woodcutting Experience
(chopping roots)

Woodcutting Experience
(chopping tree)

Firemaking Experience
(burning kindling)

Regular

20

3

15.1

200

Oak

45

6.5

32.4

300

Willow

66

9.1

45.7

450

Maple

121

11.1

55.6

675

Yew

172.5

17.5

87.5

1012

Magic

311

25

125

1517.5

Elder

687.5

32.5

162.8

2,000.5

Post-event, the tree turns into a bonfire, on which kindling can be burned, which grants Firemaking XP depending on your level. Any left over kindling can be sold to nearby leprechauns for 25 gp apiece, or you can keep them and burn them at the new Evil tree you visit. There is also of limit of 200 kindling that can be held at one time.

Locations

Trees can be located in 26 different locations all over Runescape. Most Evil Trees are found in forested areas near paths and civilisation.

The quickest way to get information about an Evil Tree on your world is to talk to a Spirit Tree (assuming you have completed the Tree Gnome Village quest). If there is an active Evil Tree on your world, the Spirit Trees can teleport you directly to it! When Evil Trees are immature, the Spirit Trees will give you a hint to the location of the evil tree; these can be very specific or very vague. If there is no active evil tree on your world, the Spirit Trees will tell you how long it will be until the next one.

If you cannot talk to the Spirit Trees, there is one other way to find an Evil Tree or sapling. When one turns up, large roots will occasionally spring out of the dirt in areas nearby as you walk past. Explore the vicinity and you should find it!

The below table will list the possible locations for all hints given by the spirit tree. Hints may refer to several locations. Each location may be referenced by more than one hint.

Rewards

Rewards include noted logs of the same type as the tree, tree seeds, bird's nests, coins, items such as key parts and gems, as well as Treasure Trail Clues. Elder Trees will supply you with yew, magic, teak or mahogany noted logs, as well as the above rewards. Elder Trees also have the chance to give you one of three Triskelion fragments. These rewards scale based on Firemaking and Woodcutting levels.

In addition to these rewards, the leprechaun will also reward you with a unique temporary ability. This reward, lasting from a minimum of 2 to a maximum of 30 minutes, forces any logs you chop automatically be sent to your bank, regardless of whether your bank is full or not (only on regular, oak, willow, maple, yew, magic, and elder trees).

The below table indicates how long this effect will last for you - these times only apply if you have received a 100% reward total; expect slightly lower values if you received less than 100%.

Type

Magic Banking Time (minutes)

Regular

6*

Oak

10*

Willow

14*

Maple

18*

Yew

22*

Magic

26*

Elder

30*

* If you choose to claim your reward from a regular farming leprechaun, your magical banking time is halved.

In addition to these rewards, when chopping a tree within this time frame, each time you receive a log, there is a lower chance than normal of the tree being completely chopped down (only applies to non-farmed trees).

If you do not have time or pack space to collect your reward, you can get it from the next evil tree you encounter.